New Dawn Rising
by Hurricane's Quill
Summary: A short one-shot based on "A New Dawn." There's always something going on on Summoner's Rift, and today's no different. It'll take a lot of teamwork and a little luck in order for Ahri and her Summoner, Rocket, to escape with victory.


**Hey everyone, HQ here!**

 **This here is just a little piece I kinda wanted to write on my own in between my other projects. I might do another, more feature-length (if you'd call it that) League fanfic at some point, if enough people say they like this particular style. As I've noted in the description, this is based on the "A New Dawn" cinematic that was released way back when.**

 **Anyway, on with the show. ROLL TAPE!**

* * *

Summoner's Rift was a beautiful place, at least if only one came for the sightseeing. However, one did not usually come to the Rift for that, but more than anything Summoner's Rift was the one place where blood was spilt to maintain the peace on Valoran, a peace that continued to be further strained by the day. Such was the way of the League of Legends, the ultimate ruling body on the island.

" _Okay, defensive wards are down. Ahri, how're things looking in the jungle?_ "

Ahri, the Nine-Tailed Fox being her League-given title, rolled her sapphire blue eyes briefly at the sounds of the summoner in her head. As much as she liked her summoner of choice, Alain Tremaine (though his fellow summoners called him "Rocket"), she almost wished he'd take the match seriously. There was quite a fair bit at stake here, but Alain seemed to think it was just another minor land dispute between Demacia and Noxus. In fact, she'd be surprised if he thought any match was anything _but_ another land dispute. "Green, green, and more green. No sign of the enemy."

"We're somewhere near the river, north on the blue side," added her compatriot for the match, Leona the Radiant Dawn. Her golden armor caught the sunlight and seemed to shine like the sun she invoked in her magic. "We must be vigilant in case they're trying to catch us in a trap."

" _That would be the play, wouldn't it?_ " observed Leona's summoner, Charlotte "QueenBee" MacKenzie. Despite being led by two separate people, it wasn't uncommon for champions like Leona and Ahri to hear other summoners in their heads. Something to do with the mental connections between summoner and champion. " _Rocket, you're the shotcaller. What's the plan?_ "

Rocket blew out a sigh in Ahri's head, clearly having nothing to contribute at the moment but suddenly, a third voice cut in on their conversation. " _Guys, I just saw Kat wandering around in your direction on one of the wards. Free kill if you want one._ "

"All by herself? That is quite strange happening," said Leona.

" _Well, I guess we could start from there. Thanks for the heads-up, Nova,_ " Rocket agreed. " _Let's go bag us a Noxian. Just don't let her do that warp trick again, chain every bit of control you can on her and we'll turn her into a magic and steel sandwich._ "

No sooner had Rocket finished laying out the game plan than Ahri's fox ears twitched and she stopped Leona moving ahead of her. There was a whistle of steel cutting through air, and a series of small knives embedded in the tree across from them. There, standing across from them in her sleek black leather armor, tossing a few more knives, was Katarina, the Sinister Blade, and one of the champions of the opposing faction.

"Well that didn't take long," Ahri quipped.

"After her!" Leona was more pragmatic, unleashing a blast of light from her sword to give chase, but she was already gone, throwing more knives to cover her escape as she took off into the jungle. Immediately Ahri and Leona gave chase, spurred on by their summoners' mental influence.

" _Looks like Kat found us, guys. Probably stepped on one of their wards. Kat's on the run towards the river headed red-side north. Nova, Thunderbird, you guys wanna lend us a hand…"_

Ahri tuned Rocket out of her head, instead trying to focus more on the mental connection handling her body's movements. Funny thing about Rocket was that he never really assumed direct control like most other summoners, not unless he needed to take a precision shot with her magic. It was always a shift in stance one way, or the subtle turn of her shoulders to turn her another way. She could appreciate a man who could be subtle, but still maintain control. It was the little things she'd come to appreciate, especially since she'd joined the League of Legends.

Katarina, her blazing red hair easily visible among the green foliage, led Ahri and Leona through the jungle, down one of the steep hills in the jungle back towards the river that separated the Rift in two territories that both factions defended. Leona took the nearby path down as Katarina and Ahri leapt down over the various boulders on the path, and charged in to take her by surprise. Katarina, however, was as acrobatic as she was sadistic, and promptly kicked off of Leona, leaping down to the other side of the hill and right towards the bank of the river.

Leona increased her pace, shield forward to block any further knives as she dashed past Ahri. She stepped on to the river's banks, and suddenly a large metal object came flying in from behind a tree. "Ungh-!" Leona was bodily flung backwards, colliding with Ahri behind her. Both of them took a tumble quite a bit of distance before coming to a halt.

" _Son of a bitch!_ _What the hell, Bee!?"_ Rocket's shout of surprise cut through Ahri's head like a sword. Apparently she wasn't the only one smarting from whoever had shown up.

" _Don't look at me, I wasn't expecting that,_ " groaned QueenBee.

Leona reached out to grab her nearby fallen sword, but suddenly a boot stomped on it, keeping her from retrieving it. The owner of said boot, the mustachioed gladiator Draven, known as the Glorious Executioner, merely leaned down towards Leona's face and gave her a slight smirk. Leona seethed internally; Draven was always one who fancied himself a showman and an enchanter of women, but Leona would never count herself among his adorers, if there were any.

"Hey, bro. Take the fox, will ya?" Draven looked over towards another person nearby briefly. "Leona and I are gonna take this elsewhere."

Leona broke out in a cold sweat, and not just because her summoner had done the same. Everyone in the League knew that Draven only had one brother. And indeed, across the way, no doubt the same one who cut in on chasing Katarina, was Darius, the Hand of Noxus. The armored champion lumbered forward, leaping high into the air to cut down the still-recovering Ahri.

" _Leona, do something!_ "

Leona needed no second bidding. Hoisting her shield, she scrambled to her feet away from Draven and bulled Ahri aside, raising her shield as it began to gleam with holy light, trying to withstand the massive incoming blow.

CRUNCH. SPLAT.

Armored as she was, few could withstand Darius's axe. Leona went down to the ground, Darius's weapon embedded in her shield. Darius yanked the axe out, turning to Ahri.

"Rocket…?"

" _I know, I know. Guys, I'm pinging a location now, converge for a teamfight and we're gonna keelhaul their asses hard way. Bee? Bee!?"_

There was no reply from Bee, and Leona was motionless on the jungle ground. For a moment, nobody moved. Then, Leona's eyes slowly fluttered open. That was all the cue Ahri needed. Her eyes flashed lavender for a second or two, then she unleashed a haze of aphrodisiacs right at Darius. She knew that pissed him off more than he'd care to admit, and like a charm Darius growled and took off after her, to which Ahri also ran off in the forest, trying to reach the point Rocket had pointed out (helpfully) with his own magic.

Suddenly, something whipped out and grabbed Ahri's arm. "What the-!?" A second thing grabbed Ahri's arm. She struggled in the grasp of the two vines that had somehow tied her down, barely a few feet from her goal, but it was no use. Looking up, she saw the perpetrator immediately: Zyra, the Rise of the Thorns.

" _Oh friggin' hell! Nova, why the hell didn't you say Zyra was missing from bottom lane!?_ " Rocket was now legitimately angry. He didn't like surprises, and this was a very big, not to mention unwelcome, surprise.

" _I did!_ " Benjamin "Nova" Townsend, the person who had alerted them to Katarina's presence, countered.

Zyra chuckled to herself, a thorned vine creeping out from her forearm for the finishing maneuver, but Draven brushed her aside, spinning one of his trademark axes for a vital blow.

" _GUYS!? NOW WOULD BE NICE!"_

Seconds before Draven launched his axe, something large and silver shot through the melee, knocking the axe right to the ground: a canister that was giving off a haze of gray smoke.

BOOM.

A huge cloud of smoke washed over Zyra, Draven, Darius, and a just-returned Katarina. As the Noxians coughed and made their way out of the smoke, they discovered that three more people had suddenly joined Ahri. One was the bipedal lion hunter, Rengar the Pridestalker, glaring with one blue eye and another eye covered by a yellow monocle. Second was the cannon-wielding Outlaw, Malcom Graves, a lit cigar perched in his mouth. And third was the Grandmaster-At-Arms, Jax, his purple shroud flapping in the wind from the explosion.

"Now that just ain't playing nice, Draven," remarked Graves dryly around his cigar.

Draven spat in the ground, trying to cleanse the taste of smoke in his mouth. "You're hardly one to talk about playing nice, _outlaw_."

The two groups of four stared each other down, one waiting for the other to make their move. This was one of the most important and most exciting parts of any match, as any spectators watching in the Institute of War spoke of: the teamfight. Rengar roared, and immediately took the initiative, going right for Draven. Immediately the fighters split off, each one with their intended target. As Rengar, led by Kase "Thunderbird" Wilder, immediately tackled Draven to the ground began mauling him with his claws, Nova and Graves went after Katarina, blasting away again and again as she leapt off into the trees. With Draven handled by Rengar and Thunderbird, Graves decided to go off after them.

Back with the rest, Darius was fighting against Jax, controlled by Ivan "Anemos" Krazozinski. The two of them danced a dance of death, axe grinding against the lamppost that Jax seemed to favor in all his battles. Meanwhile, Ahri and Rocket were fighting Zyra, and Rocket was taking more time to unload on his teammates. " _Days like this I wished I'd stayed in bed. Nova, what the hell took you so long?_ "

" _That any way to greet your savior?_ " Nova countered, sounding rather irked. " _You're welcome, by the way._ "

" _Would prefer we not come? Sure you could take four-on-one very easy,_ " rumbled Ivan in his Russian accent.

" _We already lost Bee and Nova didn't call an obvious MIA. Just a little empathy, boys, that's all I'm asking!_ "

"I'll give you all the empathy you want at the end of this if you focus on the fight at hand, Rocket," Ahri growled, trying to outrun more vines as they attempted to snare her legs. At once she could feel Rocket assert direct control, as she suddenly skidded to a halt against her will, the vine just barely cutting across her right shoulder. With a joint shout from Rocket, Ahri unleashed an orb of spirit magic right at Zyra. Not expecting her attack to miss, Zyra summoned a wall of flowers to defend, but the ball rebounded as it struck through her and the plants and the resultant explosion of magic brought down the Rise of the Thorns.

" _There! I took out friggin' Zyra! She's dead, there's blood everywhere!_ "

" _Our midlaner, ladies and gentlemen_ ," groaned Thunderbird.

* * *

Meanwhile, Graves was headed through the jungle towards the middle lane, reloading his double-barreled cannon. Nova knew better than to send Graves off on his own into the jungle after someone as mobile and deadly as Katarina, but attempting to double back to towards the furball was putting a target on his back. " _Guys, I lost Katarina and I'm flying blind here. Can someone help me out here?_ "

Meanwhile, as Graves followed the path through the trees, Katarina was spying on him from the high branches, grinning at the thought of such an easy kill. Slowly she reached for one of her daggers…

"Not so fast!" Suddenly, Rengar shot through the trees, pouncing on the lone assassin. Katarina quickly jumped clear, clawing through the tree branch with a swing of the dagger in his paw. As Katarina recovered and made it to another branch, Rengar followed by sliding down the tree trunk, she went low, dodging both strikes from the hunter before dodging a finishing blow in her lower torso, her legs split. She sucked in a nervous gasp, realizing just how close the hit was. Rengar froze at the position they found themselves in, or at least Thunderbird did (such was the danger of assuming full control of a champion), which allowed Katarina to kick the dagger away and pull out her swords.

" _Oh come on, that was on purpose, wasn't it!?_ " said Thunderbird.

In response, Rengar activated his claw gauntlet and started attacking with that instead. Katarina quickly dodged two swipes from the weapon and immediately swung off a higher branch, kicking Rengar in the face. Rengar snarled, wiping the blood off his face, then immediately tackled Katarina off the branch. The two of them fell from the jungle canopy, swinging fists and claws at each other. Then Rengar grabbed a branch, disengaging suddenly as Katarina fell to what surely would be her death, as she'd missed the opportunity to catch herself before she became a smear on the ground.

Funny thing about Katarina: she had ways around that.

With a quick flare of magic, she vanished, and then teleported safely onto the ground with her Shunpo technique, right behind the unsuspecting Graves. Sensing a free kill, Katarina raised her sword…

…and promptly was greeted by the barrel of Graves's cannon, right in her face. Graves chuckled a little, a ring of smoke exiting his mouth.

"Howdy, ma'am."

* * *

Ahri's ear twitched, hearing Graves's gunshot echoing through the forest. With Zyra dealt with and Jax and Darius fighting, Ahri found herself with little to do but observe, mostly so Rocket could handle shot-calling. " _Katarina dealt with, guys. On our way back to regroup._ "

" _I hear you, Nova,_ " Rocket said, his initial irritation having mostly disappeared now. " _Good job._ _Ahri, anything to report?_ "

"…there's something else I heard a minute ago. Sounded like crunching earlier. You're not eating anything, are you?"

" _Well, so what if I am?_ " said Rocket. " _We're mostly in cleanup mode now that we took out Draven and Kat and Zyra. I doubt we'll see any more action once Anemos beats up Darius."_

CRUNCH.

Famous last words. A humongous steel object, almost as big as some of the stone pillars in the clearing Ahri, Jax, and Darius were in, came flying out of the blue, smashing through whole trees. Darius saw it first, and immediately disengaged. Jax, however, had a snowball's chance in hell of dodging and was promptly crushed.

" _Chto, chert voz'mi, prosto udaril menya!?_ " Anemos howled in his native tongue.

There was a clanking of steel chains as the object slid on the ground back to its owner: a humongous steel anchor, sea-washed and Jax's cloak hanging from it. With a creak, the fifth member of the Noxian team shouldered the anchor, its beady red eyes glaring from its massive helmet: Nautilus, the Titan of the Depths.

" _Oh, screw me sideways with a stick covered in fire ants,_ " Rocket breathed.

Ahri wasted no time, immediately running around behind the massive golem, summoning her orb for another attack at his unprotected back. Nautilus simply turned, raised one massive boot, and stomped down. The force of the movement shot through the ground, catching Ahri mid-attack and flinging her backwards into a tree. The kitsune slumped to the ground, unconscious.

" _Oh god I lost Ahri. I lost Ahri, guys! Nova! T-Bird! Cover me, quick!_ "

Nautilus resumed a ready position, staring at the fallen Ahri, but then an explosion ripped across his back. Graves had reappeared, firing again and again at Nautilus to distract him. Nautilus promptly turned around, dropping its anchor in preparation of an attack. Graves met his opponent's gaze, let the cylinder in his cannon move to the next shell, and fired. The high-explosive round exploded right across Nautilus's front, obscuring him in a haze of fire and smoke.

Nothing happened for a moment. Graves reached for his cigar for another puff, but suddenly Nautilus's anchor came flying in out of the smoke, catching Graves right in his side and flinging him into the stone pillars across the way. He coughed, touching his side and his hand came up a damning red. Looking over, his cannon had been destroyed from the sheer force of Nautilus's blow. All that's left was a handful of his remaining high-explosive rounds, scattered around the ground.

"Nova, I'm about to do somethin' real stupid, but all goes well it'll beat this sumbitch," Graves grunted, reaching for one particular shell on the ground.

Nautilus stepped out of the smoke, a couple of gaping holes in its body from the blast but still capable of finishing the fight.

" _Do it do it do it!_ "

At Nova's command, Graves took the shell he'd recovered and smacked it against the pillar, trying to reactivate the HE-tipped casing. Nautilus raised his anchor, ready for the finishing blow.

"Choke on this!"

With a roar, Graves gave the shell one final smack, and it promptly exploded, killing Graves instantly. But it also had the effect of bringing down the pillar he was leaning against. Nautilus summoned an energy shield and threw its anchor to the side in an attempt to save itself, but it was too late. The pillar collapsed right on top of it. For as impressive and apparently bulletproof as Nautilus was, this was not enough to save the Titan of the Depths from being crushed to death. All was silent in the destroyed clearing, smoke rising from the end of the battle.

Finally, Ahri stirred, finally having come around. "Ugh…my head…"

" _Ahri! Jesus Christ, that was close._ "

Ahri chuckled mirthlessly, finally glad to hear some genuine relief out of her summoner than his usual uppity snark, as she rolled over, trying to shake off the stars flying around her eyes. Unfortunately, as the stars finally disappeared to the back of her head, a rather imposing shadow was now looming over her. "Darius-!"

" _Run. Ahri, RUN!_ "

Ahri ran, dashing back into the jungle and headed up towards top lane as fast as her ailing body would allow her, but finally she reached the north end of Summoner's Rift, a massive cliff face at the far end of the field. To her left were the opposing turrets, more than capable of snuffing her out. To her right, the smoking remains of her team's tower. The secondary tower was still up, but the distance was so far it may as well have been covered broken glass from there to where they were, and the river was blocked off by the oncoming Darius. She was trapped.

" _Friggin' hell, we took a wrong turn,_ " Rocket groaned.

Darius emerged from the jungle, axe in hand. He still looked rather mad about the aphrodisiac tricked Ahri pulled on him earlier.

"Rocket? Help!?" Ahri asked, trying summon what little mana she had for a last-gasp attack.

" _I'm thinking, I'm thinking!_ "

Darius charged, axe raised to finish Ahri off. But then, the cloudy skies over the Rift parted, and a dazzling beam of light shot down from the sun, striking down on Darius well before he could finish her off. Ahri shielded her eyes from the light, and Darius was blown backward by the sudden attack from nowhere, clutching at his eyes. "What the hell!?"

" _Looks like we're right on time._ "

From the other side of the lane emerged a bleeding-but-still-upright Leona. She exhaled, leaning against a nearby tree, her golden sword still smoking from the mana she'd put into the maneuver.

"Leona!" Ahri said happily.

" _And not a moment too soon!_ " Rocket added.

Darius growled, grabbing his axe as he got right back to his feet. Ahri screamed, throwing a handful of blue spirit fire right at Darius. The maneuver not only stopped Darius attacking her, it also flung him backwards once again, but against his own volition, Darius remained upright. And then, the invisible thing that had caught him shimmered back into vision: Rengar, finally having caught up with the team. He'd been using his stealth to keep up with the fight, and now here he was, back in action as if from out of nowhere.

" _What up, boys_?" cracked Thunderbird, as Rengar snarled in Darius's face.

Darius merely snarled right back and swung his fist right into Rengar's face, knocking the Pridestalker to the ground, but then Darius noticed that the air around him seemed to have changed, somehow. Looking over, he could see that Ahri now had an aura around her that she hadn't had before.

"Rocket. Let's finish this."

" _Gotcha. Bury him, Ahri!_ "

Ahri immediately leapt into the air, her eyes now blazing emerald green, and her white fox tail suddenly split into nine, fanning out in all directions around her as magic began to orbit around her. The souls of all the men she'd consumed prior to joining the League were now fueling her, and now she was about to unleash brutal, bloody payback on the hand of Noxus.

She shot to the left in a flaming blue haze, a burst of magic smashing right against Darius's abdomen.

She shot to the right. Another burst of magic collided with his head.

Then, one final charge, aimed right at his chest.

Darius, his eyes open in amazement of what he'd just witnessed, fell dead and smoking on the ground. Five enemy members found, five enemy members dead. An ace.

Ahri fell to one knee, exhausted from the assault. She was still alive, but it had taken nearly everything she had. Looking up, she saw Leona offering a hand up as Rengar came back up to join them. "Nice work, Ahri."

"Thanks," Ahri mumbled, letting Leona hoist her to her feet.

"The enemy's been cleared, so we've got time to strategize before they return," Rengar said. "Let's take advantage of this time we've got."

Ahri nodded, looking northwest through the jungle. Somewhere in the maze of trees and paths, was the enemy base, and an enemy Nexus ripe for the destruction. This match hadn't been going well, but with this teamfight, they'd tipped the scales. They could win, but they would need a bit more luck and a lot more strategy.

"Rocket, you're the shot-caller. What's the plan?" asked Ahri.

Rocket grinned as he leaned back in his chair, looking at Anemos and Thunderbird to the left of him and Nova and QueenBee to the right. Time to do what he did best. " _Ears up, everyone. Here's what we're gonna do._ "

* * *

 **Questions? Comments? Emotional outbursts? Make sure you leave them in the review box. And don't forget to smile once in a while!**


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